Umair Mohsin responds to your queries...

Virus Attack

Q My system has been attacked by virus and takes a long time to start and shut down. In fact, in order to turn it off, I have to click on the Shut Down tab repeatedly. I installed an antivirus but it does not help either. How can I rid my computer of the virus?

A Your system needs a full format. This will help you clean up the virus. After this, please install AVG antivirus/Comodo firewall / Spybot-S&D anti-spyware and Prevx CSI online scanner. All of these can be downloaded from www.download.com.

Buying A Cell Phone

Q Please suggest a mobile set within a budget of Rs5,000 to Rs6,000.

A You can check out the Nokia 3110 Classic or the Samsung E200 mobile phones. Both are within your budget and both are rich in features. The E200, aside from the MMS/SMS functionality, etc, has a 1.3MP camera, video, Java MIDP 2.0, which you can use to play games, stereo FM radio, MP3/AAC/AAC+ player, Organiser, To do list, built-in handsfree and Voice memo. The Nokia's specifications are almost the same.

However, if you want something more, then I suggest that you buy a second-hand set from a trusted supplier. For example, Nokia's N76 is available for Rs8,000 (second-hand) in the market.

Freelance Interior Designer

Q I am good at Adobe Photoshop CS3 and have done a number of professional assignments for various clients. Please suggest a website which hires freelance interior designers.

A You can visit www.Guru.com and www.elance.com. These are two of the largest freelance websites in the world. You just have to sign up, put up hourly rates, put up a profile and you are in business.

Better Browser

Q Which is a better browser, the Internet Explorer 8 Beta, or Mozilla Firefox3?

A The IE 8 Beta2 is literally a revolution in browsing as compared to IE's Predecessors. However, Firefox 3.1 is not too far behind, and with the release of Google Chrome, the battle has heated up further. Personally, I would look at three features in browsers expandability, performance and Malware protection.

In terms of expandability (and fun), there is no doubt that Firefox is the Swiss Army Knife of the internet, boasting an unrivalled collection of extensions and themes — although to be fair, IE 8 is catching up with a decent collection of toolbars and extensions in the Internet Explorer Gallery.

Although Firefox is the king of the extensions; IE8 has a few interesting ideas built into the browser. One feature that I personally liked, for instance, was its accelerators, which are essentially plug-ins that can bring the power of web services to the context menu. So, for example, if you right-click on a link, you can choose to blog it, email it, translate it and so on. It is context-sensitive, and therefore, some content will give you the ability to define text with Encarta or map an address with Live Maps.

Firefox offers something similar via the impressive Ubiquity add-on, but with the IE, the basic features are already in the browser. This is something that we can look forward to being developed in the future, especially once SilverLight comes into play in a big way.

In terms of performance for everyday browsing, each browser's loading time is the same for the web pages. There is no substantial difference between the two browsers. However, Firefox installs simply and quickly and the IE can waste an entire morning. Also, the start-up time for the IE is substantially more, and it also takes more resources to run than Firefox does.

Another key consideration in performance is stability. With Firefox, all your open tabs are handled in one go. This means that a poorly coded web page or a problem in one tab can bring down the entire browser. With the IE8, each tab is handled independently. This means that a crash in one tab does not affect any other tab. This is a big plus for the IE 8.

Another big advantage that the IE has is the private browsing modes, dubbed InPrivate. This stops the recording of your browsing activities, which you can use to prevent members of your family from seeing what you have been up to. In malware protection, Firefox can still out-perform the IE with its built-in pop-up blocker, add-on management tools, etc.

In conclusion, the IE 8 is a vast improvement over the IE7 and has some nice touches to it, but it is too slow when compared to its rivals. If your machine is not blessed with a lot of Ram and a speedy processor, it is going to annoy you. Many plug-ins which we take for granted are still not supported in the IE, and it is still susceptible to being taken over by hostile malware.

So, I am sticking with Firefox 3. Despite its flaws, it is still the most expandable and customisable of all the browsers, including Chrome. Its ability to block in-page annoyances without having to muck around with proxies more than makes up for the odd crash.

 Display Problem

Q I have a P4 with 1.80GHz processor, 256MB of Ram and a 64MB AGP card. The problem is that whenever I start my system, the display screen starts blinking after a few minutes, and then eventually turns black. I changed my monitor as well, but the problem persists.

A Since you have changed your monitor, the problem cannot be that. There  are only two other possibilities either corrosion on your wires, or the video driver.

First, unplug the input pin to the motherboard and the one that goes into the monitor. Check for corrosion on the contacts. If you find some, then consider replacing the wire or cleaning it thoroughly. Plug/unplug a couple of times when you put it back in too. Hopefully, this will ensure that the blackouts end.

If this is not the case, then consider taking out the AGP card and running your system on the integrated graphics card to check to see if the problem persists. If it does, then you may have to replace your motherboard. If it still does not work, then please replace the AGP card.

 Windows Problem

Q Recently, my system (Windows XP) was attacked by a virus 'Infostealer.' I scanned it with Symantec antivirus, but it could not quarantine or delete the virus. Instead, the following message popped up on the screen

Scan type Realtime protection scan

Event Virus found!

Virus name Infostealer

File CWINDOWSsystem32SCVHOST. EXE

Location CWINDOWSsystem32

Action taken Clean failed Quarantine failed Access denied

I also scanned my system with Ad-Aware but even that was unable to detect the virus. My antivirus definitions are also up-to-date. How can I remove this virus? Also, I am unable to open the registry editor. Whenever I try, it shows a message saying, “Registry editor has been disabled by your administrator.” How can I fix this problem?

A To completely purge 'Infostealer' from your computer, you need to delete the Windows registry keys and registry values associated with Infostealer. To remove the Infostealer registry keys and values, click on the Windows' Start menu > Run.

In the Open box, type regedit and click OK. The Registry Editor window will open.

Now search for, and delete the following

—HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTclsid {f369da09-fade-44cb-987f-e2e0def51bca}

— HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTinterface {49a188c9-bdd7-430a-8f01-c9eaaa65f359}

— HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTpopupbho. cbho

— HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTpopupbho. cbho.1clsid

— HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT ypelib {6c01440a-7479-40e3-ac7e-b6f452c2bf17}

— HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEsoftware microsoftwindowscurrentversionexplorerrowser helper

objects{f369da09-fade-44cb-987f-e2e0def51bca}

This will remove the Trojan from your system. After this, please ensure that you install Comodo (www.comodo.com) firewall, along with a good antivirus like AVG or Avast on your system. Also, double your protection by installing Prevx CSI from www.prevx.com. This will help in detecting threats on your system.

N-Gage Games

Q I have a Nokia N95 with 8GB memory, which has the capability to support N-gage games. However, when I copy these games from the CD (.sis extension), and try to install them, a message pop ups saying, “Installation of application is not supported.” How can I run N-gage games on my N95 8GB? The same problem has occurred with my N81 8GB as well.

A The games for N-gage are not compatible with Symbian 9, so you cannot play them on any S60v3 phone. This includes your N95 8GB as well as N81. However, the 'next-gen' N-gage games will work just fine on the N95. To date, I am not aware of any Emus either which could let you port them.

DELETING DATA FROM HARD DISK

Q I have an 80GB hard disk with four partitions on it. I am giving the HD to someone else, and so, deleted all the stored data. However, just to ensure, I used the software 'Recover my files,' which recovered all the data on the hard disk. Is there any software which could permanently delete the data from all the partitions?

A The only way to ensure that your data is not recoverable from a hard disk is to break it apart, and perhaps melt the platters of the hard disk as specified by the US department of defence standard 5220.22-M. These standards ensure that the hard disks containing top secret data are not even operable anymore. Otherwise, there is no surety.

For normal users, however, you can take steps to make data recovery harder. The first of these steps is to use data shredder software like CBL Data Shredder (http//www.cbltech.ca/data-shredder.html). Released by CBL Data Recovery Technologies, this free data wiping product is designed to wipe out data beyond the possibility of recovery. The product was specifically designed to meet government data erasure standards in the US, the UK, Canada, and Germany. Specifically, it uses the many-pass Gutmann method, writing over the data repeatedly with different bit patterns until it is completely unrecoverable.

The next step is to encrypt your data with Cypherix's free Cryptainer LE 6.0 (www.cypherix.com). This software encrypts data on any storage medium using a 128-bit Blowfish algorithm. It creates encrypted virtual drives that are effectively invisible until opened with a password. When the drive is open, you can drag and drop files to it just like any other drive. Users can create self-contained encrypted installations on removable drives for portability; the encryption software loads directly from the drive without installing on the host machine.

Together, these can make recovering data much harder.